Focus on Fire Safety: Children

Did you know that 50 percent of child fire deaths affect those under the age of 5? Escaping from a fire can be difficult for very young children because they generally lack the motor skills and mental capabilities needed to quickly escape a burning building. The U.S. Fire Administration provides fire prevention information to teach children and their caregivers about the dangers of fire. Protect your kids: install and maintain smoke alarms and residential sprinklers and practice home fire escape plans to ensure your children will be safe if a fire were to start in your home.

Children and Fire: Life Saving Tips

Young children are not able to sense danger in the same way as adults. They have a very limited ability to react quickly and properly in an emergency situation as well as little control over their environment. This increases their risk of death and injury in a fire.

•Keep matches, lighters and other items used for ignition in a secured drawer or cabinet out of the reach of children.

•Teach your children to tell you when they find matches and lighters.

•Always dress children in pajamas that meet Federal flammability standards. Avoid dressing children for sleep in loose-fitting, 100% cotton garments, such as oversized t-shirts.

•Teach children not to hide from firefighters, but to get out quickly and call for help from another location.

•Show children how to crawl low on the floor, below the smoke, to get out of the house and stay out.

•Demonstrate how to stop, drop to the ground, and roll if clothes catch fire.

•Develop and practice a home fire escape plan and designate a meeting place outside. Get out and stay out.

•Familiarize children with the sound of your smoke alarm.

•Replace mattresses made prior to the 2007 Federal Mattress Flammability Standard.

•Check under beds and in closets for burnt matches, evidence your child may be playing with fire.

Prevention Starts with You!

Ninty-six percent of homes in the United States have at least one smoke alarm. However, only three-quarters of all homes have at least one working smoke alarm.*

Almost two-thirds of reported home fire deaths in 2003-2006 resulted from fires in homes with no smoke alarms or no working smoke alarms.*

* Source: National Fire Protection Association

What Can You Do?

•Install a smoke alarm on every level of your home, including the basement, and both inside and outside of sleeping areas.

•Install both ionization AND photoelectric smoke alarms, OR dual sensor smoke alarms, which contain both ionization and photoelectric smoke sensors.

•Test smoke alarm batteries every month and change them at least once a year.

•Replace smoke alarms that are more than 10 years old.

•Consider installing a 10-year lithium battery-powered smoke alarm, which is sealed so it cannot be tampered with or opened.

Learn more about smoke alarms »

Cut your family's chances of dying in a house fire in half by having a working smoke alarm. Practicing fire-safe behaviors and knowing what to do in an emergency can give your family extra seconds to escape.

This article was sponsored by Firefighter Books.